[Qt-creator] Tabbed Editor

[André Pönitz]

On Thu, Nov 26, 2020 at 09:52:06PM -0500, Michael Barth wrote:
>    Hello!
> 
>    I’m interested in adding support for a tab based editor for Qt Creator
>    either as an option or plugin. I’m aware that the FAQ says that a lack
>    of tabs is a deliberate design decision. I also know that tab plugins
>    do exist, but they’re a bit old, janky, and lack comfort features that
>    most IDEs have.
> 
>    Some of those things like a lack of a right click context menu, middle
>    click closing of tabs, and actually reopening tabs based on the session
>    are things that I can do with just modifying an existing plugin. I’ve
>    been working on this.
> 
>    However there are some things I can’t do because a decent chunk of the
>    editor manager code is behind non-exported private code like the
>    EditorWindow, EditorView, EditorArea, and etc. I believe I can create
>    splits/windows, but there’s no way I can see to keep track of where an
>    IEditor comes from or modify an editor window to give it its own tab
>    bar.
> 
>    Other IDEs use tabs as a way to split views or detach into new windows
>    that also have tabs that can also be split. This is something I can’t
>    do through a plugin because of the private code mentioned earlier.
> 
>    So that leaves me with two options:
> 
>    1: I can refactor some of the private editor manager code to be exposed
>    so that I can just leave this as a plugin that doesn’t get in the way
>    of the “no tabs” design decision.
> 
>    2: I can work to re-implement the plugin natively into Qt Creator as an
>    optional, non-default behavior.
> 
>    I just want to know if it’s okay to do one or the other or if this is
>    something that people are dead set against. I just want this to be a
>    feature that’s easily accessible to everyone.

In principle it is fine to export non-exported parts for re-use, so the usual
preference is your option 1.

Whether this is ok in this case depends a bit on how intrusive the necessary
changes are.

Andre'